House of Black
The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was one of the largest, oldest and wealthiest pure-blooded wizarding families in Britain, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Many wizarding families in Britain are distantly related to the House of Black. Like the Malfoy and Lestrange families, the House of Black is synonymous with elevated status and wealth. The Black family tree is displayed in the drawing room of the family home at 12 Grimmauld Place in London, England on an intricate tapestry, as an ornate mural. It starts in the Middle Ages and shows the dominant line of the family up to the present day. B the late twentieth century, the House of Black had become extinct in the male line with the deaths of Sirius and Regulus Black, neither of whom had children. The female line continued through the Malfoy family and Teddy Lupin, though the latter descends from a Black who was disowned. It has not been confirmed that the Potter family is also distantly related to the Black family through Dorea Black; they are, however, related through Ginevra Weasley, who married Harry Potter and had three children. History The Black family traces its origin back to the Middle Ages. They claim to have entirely magical ancestry, but as Sirius Black informed his godson Harry Potter, no true pure-blood families existed by the twentieth century. The pure-blood families like the Blacks simply removed Muggles and Squibs from their family trees. The Blacks place a great importance on blood purity, considering themselves akin to royalty in the wizarding world and distaining Muggles, Squibs, Blood traitors and Muggle-borns. The family motto, which can be found on the family crest, is Toujours Pur, which means "Always Pure" in French. Many members took this phrase very seriously. Because of their views, a large number of the Black family members practice the Dark Arts and supported Lord Voldemort during the First and Second Wizarding Wars. A few Blacks even became Death Eaters, while many others never took the Dark Mark but believed in the "purification" of the wizarding world nevertheless. A few members of the family, however, disagreed with the traditional views of their family; Sirius Black III, for example, joined the Order of the Phoenix, as did Nymphadora Tonks, a distant member of the Black family. Both were murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius's cousin and Tonks's aunt, in battle. Supportive of Voldemort at first, the family loyalists who did not become Death Eaters got cold feet when they saw the levels he would go to achieve his goals. Their hatred towards muggles is such that some members who were not outright Death Eaters would go to lengths to persecute them, such as Araminta Meliflua trying to pass a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal. With Sirius's death, the male line of the Black family ended; the female line continues through the descendants of his cousins Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy, his second cousin, once removed, Arthur Weasley, the Burke family, the Crouches, the Longbottoms and the Potter family. Harry is shocked to find that Sirius is related to the Malfoys, but Sirius explains all pure-blood families are interlinked somehow. Sirius is, in fact, related to Molly and Arthur Weasley. Family tree "Blasted off" The original tree described from Grimmauld Place was subject to some magical interference. According to Sirius Black, his mother Walburga blasted names of "blood traitors" off the tapestry without hesitation. The Black family motto of Toujours Pur ("always pure") was followed assiduously by family members; any who disagreed with the notion of blood purity or married Muggles or people of different blood statuses were disowned and blasted off the family tree, as were many Squibs. Thus, family members that remain on the tapestry can be assumed to have married fellow ("respectable") pure-bloods. Some even married their own cousins; Walburga and Orion Black, for instance, were second cousins. Generations of this practice resulted in inbreeding, which in turn has caused problems such as low fertility and mental instability. The known disowned members are; Blood relatives *Alexia Walkin Black *Alphard Black *Andromeda Tonks *Arcturus Black I *Arcturus Black II *Arcturus Black III *Bellatrix Lestrange *Belvina Black *Callidora Black *Cassiopeia Black *Cedrella Black *Charis Black *Cygnus Black I *Cygnus Black II *Cygnus Black III *Dorea Black *Eduardus Limette Black *Elladora Black *Hester Black *Isla Black *Licorus Black *Lucretia Black *Lycoris Black *Marius Black *Misapinoa Black *Narcissa Malfoy *Orion Black *Phineas Nigellus Black *Phineas Black *Pollux Black *Phoebe Black *Regulus Black I *Regulus Black II *Sirius Black I *Sirius Black II *Sirius Black III *Walburga Black Relatives by marriage *Bob Hitchens *Caspar Crouch *Charlus Potter *Druella Rosier *Ella Max *Harfang Longbottom *Herbert Burke *Hesper Gamp *Ignatius Prewett *Irma Crabbe *Jimbo Blishwick *Lucius Malfoy *Lysandra Yaxley *Melania Macmillan *Rodolphus Lestrange *Septimus Weasley *Ted Tonks *Magenta Tripe *Ursula Flint *Violetta Bulstrode Distant relatives *Arthur Weasley *Molly Weasley *Gideon Prewett *Fabian Prewett *William Weasley *Charles Weasley *Percy Weasley *Fred Weasley *George Weasley *Ronald Weasley *Ginevra Weasley *Victoire Weasley *Dominique Weasley *Louis Weasley *Molly Weasley II *Lucy Weasley *Fred Weasley II *Roxanne Weasley *Rose Weasley *Hugo Weasley *Nymphadora Tonks *Remus Lupin *Teddy Lupin *Draco Malfoy *Scorpius Malfoy *James Potter I *Harry Potter *James Potter II *Albus Potter *Lily Potter *Araminta Meliflua *Hermione Granger *Fleur Delacour *Audrey Weasley *Angelina Johnson *Frank Longbottom *Alice Longbottom *Neville Longbottom *Bartemius Crouch Sr. *Bartemius Crouch Jr. Thus, the Blacks are related to the Max, Blishwick, Flint, Hitchens, Gamp, Bulstrode, Burke, Yaxley, Macmillan, Crabbe, Potter, Gaunt, Longbottom, Fortescue, Weasley, Delacour, Johnson, Granger, Crouch, Prewett, Rosier, Lestrange family, Meliflua, Tonks, Malfoy, and Lupin families (albeit most of them distantly) but are related to all wizarding families as all families were once pure-blood and all pure-blood families are related. Also, muggle-born people are descendants of Squibs who are born into either a pure-blood family or a half-blood family (which is part pure-blood). Therefore, all wizarding families (and some Muggle ones) are related to the House of Black. Black family tree *Sirius Black I *Phineas Nigellus Black + Ursula Flint **Sirius Black II + Hesper Gamp ***Arcturus Black III + Melania Macmillan ****Lucretia Black + Ignatius Prewett ****Orion Black + Walburga Black *****Sirius Black III *****Regulus Black ***Lycoris Black ***Regulus Black I **Phineas Black **Cygnus Black II + Violetta Bulstrode ***Pollux Black + Irma Crabbe ****Walburga Black (see above) ****Alphard Black ****Cygnus Black III + Druella Rosier *****Bellatrix Black + Rodolphus Lestrange *****Andromeda Black + Edward Tonks ******Nymphadora Tonks + Remus Lupin *******Edward Lupin *****Narcissa Black + Lucius Malfoy ******Draco Malfoy + Astoria Greengrass *******Scorpius Malfoy ***Cassiopeia Black ***Marius Black ***Dorea Black + Charlus Potter ****1 son **Belvina Black + Herbert Burke ***2 sons ***1 daughter **Arcturus Black II + Lysandra Yaxley ***Callidora Black + Harfang Longbottom ****1 son ****1 daughter ***Cedrella Black + Septimus Weasley ****Arthur Weasley + Molly Prewett *****7 children ****2 sons ***Charis Black + Caspar Crouch ****1 son ****2 daughters *Elladora Black *Isla Black Physical appearances The Blacks are commonly described as having "great good looks". They are considered to be beautiful people, being tall, thin and having attractive features. The traditional look for most of the Black family is black hair and dark eyes with some exceptions, such as Narcissa Malfoy who has blonde hair and blue eyes, Andromeda Tonks having light brown eyes and brown hair and Sirius Black III, with grey eyes. They possess a certain aristocratic elegance that reflects upon their personality, as they consider themselves "practically royal". Even after incarceration in Azkaban and escape, Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius were both described to have retained vestiges of these "great good looks", despite losing much of it in the depression of the prison. Wealth The Black family, as with many other pure-blood wizarding families like the Malfoys and the Potter family, is considered to be very wealthy. This may be one of the reasons why the members of this family acted somewhat arrogantly. In 1993, Sirius Black III used money from Vault 711 to pay for Harry Potter's Firebolt. This vault may have been property of the Blacks, since Sirius may have inherited this vault after his mother's death. However, he may have acquired it after being disowned, using the money given to him by his Uncle Alphard. After Sirius died in 1996, his godson Harry Potter inherited all of Sirius Black's properties, including his house, his house-elf and his vault, which still contained "a reasonable amount of gold". Given its depth, it is likely a high-security vault. Category:Articles related to Horcruxes Category:House of Black Category:Pure-blood families Category:Families Category:Wizard families Category:Pure-blood supremacists